Critic Reviews

Menace will have you hooked for hours on end. The addictive 'just one more game' feeling hits you every time. The mixture of arcade quality graphics, sound and gameplay make this one hot shoot'em up. While Menace does nothing to promote intergalactic peace, the shear satisfaction of wasting aliens this ugly is just too good to miss. In all, a recommended dose of pure arcade violence - just what the doctor ordered.

Menace is a winner, there's no doubt about it. It's probably the best sideways scroller to appear on the ST yet and it'll take some beating. Fore once I didn't feel in the least bit let down by the game.

Despite the slightly jerky scrolling and pathetic sound effects, Menace on the PC is a good blast-'em-up. The swarms of alien uglies give you little chance to escape without putting up some sort of fight, mainly because you only get bolt on weapons by collecting the dosh left behind by destroyed enemy ships. Amiga and ST Menace was good and the PC version is every bit as playable.

The horizontal shoot-'em-ups spawned by Konami's Nemesis trilogy are many though not necessarily varied, and have made an indelible mark on the 8-bit market. Yet to develop on the 16-bits, Psyclapse's Menace is a step in the right direction. Only a few marks can be awarded for originality, and the few additional weapons are difficult to select before the icon scrolls off-screen - but a competent blast is always fun.

The panel and your ship are yellow and black. Even considering the ST's relatively limited colour capabilities, a better scheme should have been worked out. Sound is less clear and samples quieter than the Amiga game, however, Menace on the ST is an excellent blast.

So if Menace is such an ordinary game, why did I enjoy it so much? I'm generally at the school that believes that games released on the 16-bit computers should be programmed to the highest possible specifications. Ultimately, however the bottom line for a shoot 'em up is playability - and Menace's is pitched perfectly, Menace is unlikely to win any awards for technical excellence or for the advancement of science, but it is a playable and addictive blast, with enough depth build in to make it last.

Both sound and graphics are up to the usual 16-bit standards, but alas the gameplay remains stubbornly 8-bit. The action is fast and furious, but no better than the other half a dozen other good Amiga shoot-em-ups currently available.